The Mysterious Case of the Crash Landing

Twilight Sparkle was tossing and turning. She was having another nightmare. She murmured unhappily in her sleep.

She was dreaming that she was by the campfire again, toasting marshmallows. But she was all alone.

“Here I am,” sang a high-pitched voice.

She whirled around, breathing hard, but no one was there.

“Over here,” the voice teased from the opposite direction.

Twilight peered into the darkness, but she couldn’t see anything. The fire crackled. Midnight Sparkle burst out of the flames. “I’m always here!”

“No!” screamed Twilight, jolting up in her bed in alarm.

“What is it?” Sunset Shimmer asked blearily.

Twilight looked around. It was almost dawn. She was in the tent—far away from the campfire. It had all been a nightmare. “Nothing. Sorry, Sunset.”

But a more alert Sunset Shimmer wasn’t reassured. “Uh, Twilight. I think something happened.”

She pointed at Twilight’s cot. It was floating in the air!

“AAAAAHHHHHH!” Twilight screamed again. The bed dropped with a thud.

Spike opened his eyes. “Is it time to get up already?” He snuggled back into the folds of the sleeping bag. “I think I’m just gonna snooze a little longer.”

Sunset Shimmer was concerned. What was going on? “Twilight, we really have to talk about this—”

“No. We don’t,” Twilight interrupted her. She stormed out of the tent and headed down to the lake.

A few early risers were already out canoeing and boating as the sun rose.

Sunset Shimmer came up behind Twilight. “Hey,” she said gently. “I know you don’t want to, but I really think we need to figure out what’s going on with your magic. If you could learn to control it…”

Twilight whirled around. “But that’s just it,” she cried. “I’ll never be able to control it.”

Crash! An out-of-control boat sailed into the docks at full speed. The boat swamped, and the sailors were hurled overboard. Luckily, they had on their life jackets. No one seemed to be hurt. But the freshly built dock was destroyed. The lanterns were floating in the water toward shore. Pieces of wood drifted in the waves. It was a mess.

Timber rushed out of the boathouse to help the campers.

“What happened?” Rainbow Dash raced out of her tent.

Twilight was upset. “I didn’t mean to…”

Sunset Shimmer stared at her, realizing something. “We didn’t see it. So we don’t know what happened.”

She ran over to the kids staggering out of the water. “Are you okay?”

Fluttershy and Rarity appeared with towels.

Sandalwood dried himself off as he tried to explain what had happened. “It was so weird. We were stuck in the middle of the lake with no wind, then all of a sudden—bam! The wind picked up, and we were pushed right into the dock!”

Pinkie Pie gasped, her eyes wide. “You don’t think it was the spirit, do you?”

“Spirit!” announced Trixie. “Show yourself. The Great and Powerful Trixie commands it!”

Nothing happened. Or rather nothing seemed to happen.

Rarity squinted, peering out toward the middle of the lake. “What’s that?” She pointed.

A glowing trail seemed to divide the water in half.

“Is that crystal dust?”

“It’s Gaea Everfree!”

“No way!”

“How else do you explain it?”

Everybody was talking at once—scared, excited, confused. What was going on? Had Gaea Everfree really returned?

“No,” whispered Twilight to herself. “It was me.” She slipped away from the other campers. She was upset.

Rainbow Dash went down to the dock to take stock of the damage. “Man! All our hard work. Ruined.”

“At least the fishies are eating well.” Fluttershy pointed to a tub of fish food that had broken up and was floating on the lake.

“Let’s salvage what we can out of the water,” Sunset Shimmer suggested. “Maybe we can still fix this.”

“We have to try,” agreed Rarity. “Camp Everfree needs a runway.”

“Dock,” Applejack corrected.

Rarity sighed. “Yes, that’s what I meant.”

Sunset Shimmer noticed that Twilight Sparkle had disappeared. She had to get to the bottom of what was going on. It was all connected. But how?